The Lands Council and four other plaintiffs - Friends of the Clearwater, the Missoula-based Ecology Center, and Eugene and Mollie Eastman - filed the lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Coeur d'Alene.
The Eastmans, who live in Weippe, Idaho, have become self-styled historians of the trail, and said in an interview last week that the U.S. Forest Service has paid it little heed as logging contracts have been bid out in the Clearwater over the years.
The country to be logged is a small portion of 35,000 acres that burned in 2003 on the Clearwater and 3,440 acres that burned in the Wendover fire. However, the acreage is situated in relatively close proximity to the Lolo Trail National Historic Landmark corridor, which includes the Lewis and Clark Trail and the trail used by the Nez Perce in the tribe's 1877 flight from pursuing U.S. soldiers.
The lawsuit alleges that the Forest Service didn't adequately study the impacts of the sale and failed to consider the proximity of the Lewis and Clark Trail, said Mike Peterson of the Lands Council.
"The Clearwater has little respect for the value (of) this area; there have been 16 logging contracts in and around the trail since 1960, and further logging will create more cumulative impacts and damage more sites," Peterson said in an e-mail to the Missoulian.
A handful of Idaho organizations taking part in the bicentennial celebration of the Lewis and Clark journey have supported the sale, but at least one company in Montana has criticized it. Lewis and Clark Trail Adventures, a Missoula-based company that offers guided trips, even asked Pyramid to back away from the sale in a letter last week.
"Pyramid Mountain Lumber has an opportunity to do its part to ensure that the Lewis and Clark Trail, and other historic trails in the area, are preserved for future generations, rather than being known as the company that logged the forest that Lewis and Clark walked through with the Corps of Discovery 200 years ago," owners Wayne and Gia Fairchild wrote.
Pyramid said the company would move ahead with the logging contract, but noted their record for good stewardship and said loggers will be particularly mindful of working so close to a piece of American history.
"As a stewardship company, we don't take that lightly," said Gordy Sanders, the company's resource manager. "In fact, if we see something that concerns us about the trail, we'll report to the Forest Service."
The felled logs are slated to be taken off-site by helicopter, and only one new road will be built - a short, 200-foot spur that will be obliterated after the job is complete, according to the Forest Service.
Powell District Ranger Joni Packard told the Missoulian that opponents of the project have misstated details of the plan, which calls for removal of dead or dying trees. Thirty percent to 50 percent of live and dead trees should be left when the job is done, she said. The Lewis and Clark Trail does not pass through the sale site.
"So when people say we're going to be logging the Lolo Trail, no, we're not going to be logging on the Lolo Trail," Packard said.
The Clearwater has not yet responded to the lawsuit.
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